Ma Jun has been a regular visitor to the Bay Area since his book, "China's Water Crisis," came out 13 years ago, speaking to students, environmentalists and business leaders here about his country's severe environmental problems.

In October, the activist and author met with senior Apple executives in San Francisco and Cupertino to discuss his report, published a month earlier, on health hazards caused by pollution in the company's Chinese supply chain.

Ma will be at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco on Monday to receive the Goldman Environmental Prize for "bringing unprecedented environmental transparency and empowering Chinese citizens to demand justice." His work has prompted the Chinese government and multinational corporations, including Apple, to more seriously confront the issues he has long been raising.

"I take it as a recognition of the severity of China's environmental challenge and the public efforts to address the challenge. My work is just a humble part of it," he said.

As many as 300 million Chinese people don't have access to safe drinking water, according to surveys. Approximately 400 million people - more than half of the country's urban population - are exposed to persistent air pollution. Cases of toxic poisoning are widespread, and millions of tons of food are contaminated by the runoff of heavy metals.

"This is the challenge we're facing," said Ma, 43, who is one of six winners of the $150,000 award this year.

Shocked at 'all the degradation'

His own awareness was raised in the mid-1990s when his job as a researcher for the South China Morning Post took him to parts of the country where he saw the effects firsthand. Rivers running dry; the surfaces of lakes and streams on the outskirts of towns covered with a milky sheen; forests disappearing as thousands of dams were built.

"I was shocked to see all the degradation," Ma recalls.

Shock turned to action with his expose, originally published in 1999 (English language editions are in circulation), more articles and the founding in 2006 of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a nongovernmental organization headquartered in Beijing.

The agency compiles databases and maps of air and water pollution across China. The information, posted on the organization's website (ipe.org.cn/en), derives largely from government statistics, made public in accordance with a 2008 law, of pollution indexes and violations of government-imposed environmental standards. So far, his organization has recorded 97,000 violations.

"Some corrective actions have been taken," said Ma, who has persuaded several hundred companies to disclose their cleanup plans. "But regulations are often not enforced, especially at the local level, where officials still put growth ahead of environmental protection. And it's very difficult to file private suits."

Spurred by reports of poisoning from the discharge of metals at several tech-supplier factories, the institute, working with other environmental groups, put together a "Green IT" report in 2010 on supply chains connected to 29 Chinese and multinational companies. Apple was the only company that refused to cooperate, prompting Ma and others to launch a "Poison Apple" campaign.

A follow-up report, describing Apple as "stubbornly evasive," changed the Cupertino company's tune. After meeting with Ma and others, Apple acknowledged there were problems. An outside audit found numerous violations of fair labor codes at some of its factories, and changes are being made. "I feel they are making some real efforts," he said.

At the same time, Ma has turned his attention to the textile industry. Based on questionnaires to CEOs of 48 Chinese and multinational companies, a report released last week by Ma's group and four other environmental organizations found that a large number of the companies "have environmental violation records and cannot achieve stable discharge standards."

Violations included "constructing secret discharge pipes, directly discharging wastewater, improper use of wastewater treatment facilities and having pollutant discharge amounts in breach of the authorized standards," the report said.

"Walking around San Francisco, I saw in shop windows many of the brands we approached. We got responses from some, but not all," Ma said. The report praises Levi-Strauss, Nike, Walmart and H&M, among others, for "starting to take proactive measures and pushing suppliers to take corrective actions." Gap, Target, Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch are among those that don't score so well ( sfg.ly/HAT7OZ).

Public is the key

"We have to tackle all this by stimulating public participation," said Ma, who blogs regularly to his 16,000 followers on the Sina Weibo microblogging platform. While the government gives his organization "space" to operate, government officials are quick to remind Ma of complaints they get from some companies about what he is doing. While Ma said the government has not directly interfered with his work, "that puts pressure on us," he said. "We have to move cautiously. It's delicate."

However, Ma adds, "even the government understands that the environmental challenge is so big that no single agency can handle it. It needs collaboration among all the stakeholders - companies, governments, NGOs and the public. Public accountability will be the ultimate driving force."

After more than a decade in the trenches, Ma's own drive seems undiminished even though he knows the fruits of his labor may not be seen in his lifetime.

"We haven't seen the turning point yet," he said. "But we're sticking to our bottom line, for the environment and the health of the country."